Data centers to target SMB market with new "Cloud Offerings"

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels, believes SMBs represent a major opportunity for hosting companies. For a review of his comments at a gathering of hosting companies in Washington, DC this week at HostingCon 2009 check out this article . You can also see a preview of the SMB offering here.

If you are an SMB IT consultant, how do you view the emerengence of the "Cloud"?

At SMB Nation-East this past spring - Jeff Middleton of SBSMigration.com offered some interesting insights. If I recall correctly (Jeff please clarify), he viewed the cloud as the combination of (1) virutalization technologies, (2) data center resources (physical security, power and connectivity)and (3) hardware. In May, he suggested this combination could very well be a threat to the traditional IT professional serving the SMB market.

What do you make of the product offerings of Parallels? Friend or foe to the SBS community? To your livelihood?

Eriq Neale of Third Tier and Kevin Royalty of Total Care Computer Consulting will present on the implications of cloud computing and other exciting issues under the topic: Life without Microsoft at SMB Nation this Fall in Las Vegas. This should be interesting and lively!

Do you have a "cloud" strategy?